In a coronation ceremony that’s been described as both an awe-inspiring tradition and an absurd anachronism, King Charles III was crowned Saturday in Westminster Abbey.
The sight of the 74-year-old King being crowned in today’s complex age was in stark contrast to images of his mother taking part in the same ceremony 70 years ago as a 27-year-old wreathed in post-war optimism.
For seven decades, the late Queen’s personal popularity and devotion to “duty” carried the monarchy and the sense of stability it represents.
With King Charles, Canada’s relationship with the monarchy will be reset.
Certainly, Charles takes the throne at a time when citizens throughout the Commonwealth have questioned why this particular family enjoys the status and wealth that it does.
Where some thrilled to the pomp and circumstance of Saturday’s grand spectacle, others undoubtedly saw in them symbols of colonial plunder.
According to some polls, only about a quarter of Canadians support keeping the monarchy. But neither are most of us champing at the bit to jettison the Crown, with all the Constitutional hand-wringing that would entail.
Canada’s aspirations to “peace, order and good government” speak to our national character.
To put it in social media terms, “it’s complicated.”
Given the unlikeliness of Canada parting ways with the Crown anytime soon, it will be incumbent on both King Charles and Canadians to examine our relationship with the monarchy for the modern age, to reconcile darker parts of the past with a more relevant future.
